Company Vehicle Abuse Increases Risk & Expenses
Boat ramps are a great place to spot misuse of a company vehicle. Few employees seem to understand the risk and costs to an employer of hauling a boat, launching a boat and the added the wear and tear resulting from towing a boat. Don’t forget the immediate hard cost of fuel being consumed at twice the normal rate to go from home, to the boat storage facility, to the ramp and back. At a minimum half a tank of gas worth $20 is what was just stolen. YouTube has many examples of vehicles slipping into the water when trying to launch or recover a boat.
One employer related a story from the meeting he held to introduce his new tracking system to his employees. One of them actually asked, “Now how am I supposed to get my boat to the water?” Yes, it is that common.
One of the worst examples of employee vehicle abuse is when an employee with a landscaping company was driving his company vehicle from Ft. Meyers to Ft. Lauderdale (150 miles one-way) to play golf. The employer naively allowed drivers to use the honor system to report personal miles vs company miles for payroll and tax deductions. Strangely enough the driver failed to report this Sunday routine for several weeks. Even with a GPS tracking unit on his vehicle he continued to steal from his employer until he was caught.
Another common form of vehicle abuse is hard driving behaviors. Hard acceleration, harsh braking, and hard turns all cause excessive fuel consumption, excessive wear and tear, and put that driver at risk for collision. Unfortunately this costs you 3 ways, fuel, repairs, and liability.
Abuse is one behavior that can be prevented immediately with a vehicle tracking system. Speeding, after hours use, personal travel, towing, etc. are all behaviors easily identified through maps, alerts and reports. Almost any GPS system designed for vehicle tracking can provide this information. Asset trackers which provide less data may not give you the resolution needed to quickly address unwanted abuse.
Boat Ramp Failure
